Login

D. Rajkumar favourite as next BPCL chairman

Vol 19, PW 8 (17 Dec 15) People & Policy

Bharat PetroResources managing director D.

Rajkumar is the frontrunner to replace Bharat Petroleum chairman S. Varadarajan when he retires on September 30, 2016.

PETROWATCH learns at least 12 executive directors from BPCL submitted CVs by the December 2 deadline. Rajkumar, who has been MD of BPCL's E&P subsidiary since May 2009, retires in 2020 and is the only BPCL candidate with Board experience to apply.

None of BPCL’s current directors is eligible as they retire next year, confirms a company source. Results-focused and well-connected, Rajkumar has also worked in the pipelines and marketing divisions.

Competing against him will be another strong candidate: executive director Ramesh Srinivasan, widely known as S. Ramesh, who was incidentally selected to become the next director marketing on August 28 but still awaits a formal appointment letter to replace KK Gupta who retires on February 28, 2016.

“If you ask me I would say Rajkumar has a 60% chance whereas Ramesh has 40%,” says a source. “Ramesh has worked in marketing, an important department, and is also close to the BPCL chairman (S.

Varadarajan).” Both Ramesh and Rakjumar are engineers with masters degrees from the Indian Institute of Management.

Karnatak had previously applied for the HPCL chairman role but was disqualified because of the 'job hopping' rule which bars officials at state-owned companies from changing jobs if they have spent less than two years in a post. Among BPCL executive directors in the race are Dipti Sanzgiri, I. Srinivas Rao, SS Sunderajan, George Paul and RP Natekar. “You never know who might win,” says a source. “In the HPCL race they selected an executive director over a director. Nobody knows what the government has in mind.” Whoever wins will face the challenge of upgrading BPCL’s refineries to meet stringent environmental standards and a transition to production of Euro-V and Euro-VI grade petrol. BPCL is also planning a stock market launch for its Bina refinery next year, while investing $4bn in expanding the refinery capacity to 15m t/y (20,000 b/d).

Karnatak had previously applied for the HPCL chairman role but was disqualified because of the 'job hopping' rule which bars officials at state-owned companies from changing jobs if they have spent less than two years in a post. Among BPCL executive directors in the race are Dipti Sanzgiri, I. Srinivas Rao, SS Sunderajan, George Paul and RP Natekar. “You never know who might win,” says a source. “In the HPCL race they selected an executive director over a director. Nobody knows what the government has in mind.” Whoever wins will face the challenge of upgrading BPCL’s refineries to meet stringent environmental standards and a transition to production of Euro-V and Euro-VI grade petrol. BPCL is also planning a stock market launch for its Bina refinery next year, while investing $4bn in expanding the refinery capacity to 15m t/y (20,000 b/d).